Minstrel Show Rap

A scene from The Mammy Project @ P.S.122 April 2005
Written and performed by Michelle Matlock
Animation by mornography
http://www.themammyproject.com


This is where it all began, yall:
THE OLD TIME MINSTREL SHOW!

Imagine youre in a great big hall
and people pack the place
Youre here to see men sing and dance
with burnt cork on their face

yeah thats mean yeah thats wrong
Its a grand old fantasy
But years ago it was used to confirm
white superiority

The characters that they depicted
were of the plantation slave
Famous for the authentic performances
that the actor gave

The reality of the song and dance
was an act of love and theft
For I think that white folk knew that
soon thats all that would be left

Mr. Bones Mr. Bones
Play them bones
and Mr. Tambo happy
on the banjo

Mr. Bones Mr. Bones
Play them bones
and Mr. Tambo happy
on the banjo...................

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• minstrel
• show
• mammy
• project
• Jim
• crow
• Mr.
• bones
• tambo
• zip
• coon
• animation
• rap
• black
• face
• history
• race
• michelle
• matlock
• Cirque
• du
• Soleil

[49jubilee]

What made the minstrel show so bad, is they tried to pass it off as AUTHENTIC BLACK CULTURE just like they are doing WITH RAP MUSIC TODAY. Young black people think this is culture, because so of them weren't formed within families. When you act different than the RAP/MINSTREL culture, they call it ACTIN' WHITE. Oh yes, and young white boys are having a 'field day' hearing these 'coons' make fun of black women, especially if shes dark. (i'm using the word coon like they do nigga)

[mightyblack1]

That's today's Hip Hop,just watch BET,MTV and VH1.

[decevioj]

GO C DECEVIO AND NEW WEST ORDER MUSIC ON YOUTUBE 2012

[mycahdbrown]

@49jubilee i agree

[1w72st]

Minstrel shows were hardly offensive. If you want to see what real black people act like, go to a movie theater with them.

[skankdude5]

Great to see the source of America's Variety Show and Broadway--the Minstrel Show--put into perspective. Cool response to a painful and difficult subject. Puts perspective on "the long history of white entertainers becoming rich and famous by marketing in whiteface cultural innovations authored by their under-appreciated black counterparts" Randall Kennedy, 2002.

[bull068]

This is shit. Needs moar voodoo death rap.

[Gmancrap]

There's nothing wrong with being informative in rap , and I will admit public enemy is grate but after hearing "I'm black and I'm black" or "MLK MLK MLK MLK" Is a bit obnoxious.

[knmfreckleface]

This was rap was great. No yelling and swearing or girating bodies. You are great as a rapper. I actually understood the rapping. I would put you up there with Will Smith. We do a Minstrel show every year but haven't done black face for 40 years. It's not nice. The first half of the show is done with jokes, and Interlocutor, clowns, front line dancing girls and some solos. Sec. half is different every year. See our Vidoes - St. anthony's Minstrel show.